Caracas, Feb 20 (EFE).- The majority of the approximately 3 million inhabitants of Caracas are without drinking water this weekend, after several weeks of partial suspensions due to the maintenance work currently underway, state-run Hidrocapital said Saturday. "The maintenance work being done on the principal pipelines of the Tuy II drinking water production system" is part of "the action being...

File photo Caracas, Feb 18 (EFE).- The former presidents of Costa Rica and Poland - Oscar Arias and Lech Walesa, respectively, both of whom are Nobel Peace Prize winners - are in Venezuela to support political prisoners and on Thursday participated in a special session of parliament at which they criticized the country's economic model and urged lawmakers to work together to get out of the cur...

(Photo courtesy of Casa Presidencial) Chinese loans to Latin American and Caribbean governments and the region's state-owned firms climbed sharply in 2015 despite the slowing Chinese economy, rising to US $29 billion and focused once again on Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador, the Inter-American Dialogue public policy think tank said in its annual report issued this month. From nuclear power pl...

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (L) talks during the opening ceremony of a plant of PVC tubes in the state of Carabobo, in this handout picture provided by Miraflores Palace on February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters CARACAS - Venezuela's Supreme Court approved President Nicolas Maduro's "economic emergency" decree on Thursday, setting up a showdown after the Vene...

Wikimedia Commons Dover – The Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) announced today the state’s first Zika case in an adult female. The illness was travel-related and pregnancy is not an issue. Zika is primarily spread by mosquito bite and the individual is not considered infectious. The illness was mild, as expected, and was confirmed by a CDC blood test. To protect privacy, DPH will not b...

Wikimedia Commons Although it may seem as if Costa Rica has always been the leading nation for dental tourism in the Americas, many of us tend to forget that Venezuela once held the title as one of the best Latin American nations for medical and dental tourism, at least until the late 1980s.   There are good reasons to believe that Venezuela could still be the medical and dental tou...

Source: FEDEFUTBOL Not even the lone goal of the match between the National Men’s Football Teams of Costa Rica and Venezuela could salvage the night at La Carolina stadium of Barinas, the home state of the late Hugo Chavez, former leader of the Bolivarian Revolution.   The friendly international match was not sanctioned by FIFA, and that was probably a good thing. Both National Team...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Jan 15 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's administration, using constitutionally granted decree powers, on Friday declared a 60-day, nationwide state of economic emergency. The measure, extendable by an additional 60 days, is intended to "protect the people from existing threats," the country's vice president for the economy, Luis Salas, said af...

FreeStockPhotos.biz The looming economy crisis in Latin America is becoming more apparent with new reports from Mexico and Venezuela. The national currency of Mexico showed signs of retail weakness as global markets plummeted due to concerns about reduced growth of the Chinese economy, and the price of crude oil produced in Venezuela, an OPEC member nation, fell well below $30. The followin...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ Caracas, Dec 4 (EFE; additional reporting by The Costa Rica Star).- A few incidents have been reported during the National Assembly elections Sunday in Venezuela, where some voters ate ballots and military personnel tried to enter election precincts, Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez said. "They'r...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Nov 28 (EFE).- Venezuela's Food Minister Carlos Osorio denied that the government's sale of food at rock-bottom prices beginning Saturday, a week before the legislative elections, could be considered an "election gimmick." Opposition candidates are passing the word "on social networks that this operation will last no longer than election day" on Dec. 6, wh...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ Caracas, Nov 26 (EFE).- An opposition leader was shot dead at a campaign event in central Venezuela attended by the wife of Leopoldo Lopez, a high-profile government opponent who is serving a lengthy prison sentence, heightening tensions heading into next month's legislative elections. Luis Manuel Diaz, secr...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ Caracas, Nov 19 (EFE).- The Venezuelan government on Thursday delivered a protest note to the United States after the publication of documents showing that the National Security Agency spied on employees of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. The note was delivered to the charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embass...

Source: Wikimedia Commons WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Representative Eliot L. Engel, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today released the following statement praising Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro for his recent letter to the head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council Tibisay Lucena urging her to level the playing field to make t...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Washington, Nov 11 (EFE).- U.S. law enforcement officials arrested the godson and a nephew of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, charging them with conspiring to transport 800 kilos of cocaine to U.S. territory, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday citing sources close to the case. Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, the godson of the Venezuelan leader, and Franci...

U.S. military DASH-8 aircraft. Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Nov 8 (EFE).- The Venezuelan Defense Ministry on Sunday claimed that a U.S. DASH-8 military aircraft violated its maritime airspace and the armed forces of Caracas said they detected "unusual" air activity by other U.S. "intelligence equipment" based in Curacao. The U.S. Coast Guard DASH-8, "equipped with an electro-optic system that...

Wikimedia Commons Georgetown, Oct 27 (EFE).- Guyanese President David Granger has ruled out giving neighboring Venezuela access to the Atlantic as part of any settlement of the border dispute over Essequibo region. "We cannot sell out. We cannot give away. We cannot offer the adversary any corridor or any passage," Granger said on Tuesday after the successful completion of Exercise Greenhea...

Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Sep 27 (EFE).- A total of 1,000 soldiers are ready to be deployed along the border with Venezuela in case of aggression by Caracas amid a territorial dispute over Esequibo region and the Cuyuni River, Guyana Defense Force commander Brig. Gen. Mark Phillips said. Resorting to the use of arms is "necessary to safeguard peace, and not just to provoke a war," Phillip...

Source: Wikimedia Commons San Jose, Sep 7 (EFE).- The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Monday published a ruling in which it ordered the Venezuelan government to reinstate the broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, which has been confined to cable and satellite since being forced off the air in 2007. The Costa Rica-based court, a body of the Organization of Americ...

Source: Ejercito Bolivariano Twitter By Gonzalo Dominguez Loeda Cucuta, Colombia, Aug 26 (EFE).- Unlike many Latin American border cities, Colombia's Cucuta offers good quality of life and a dynamic economy due, in part, to its close ties to San Antonio, the Venezuelan city that makes up the rest of an urban area now cut in half by the border closing. When Venezuelan President Nicolas Ma...

Caracas, Aug 24 (EFE).- Shoppers have been banned from lining up overnight in front of Caracas supermarkets because many among them are speculators who cause product scarcities in regular stores, make illegal sales at inflated prices, and sell contraband to Colombia, the head of government of the Capital District, Juan Dugarte, said. "Standing in line outside of store hours is now forbidden," b...

Source: Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Aug 7 (EFE).- President Nicolas Maduro accused CNN of conducting a "terrorist campaign" against Venezuela by airing false reports about looting in order to "destabilize" the country. "That's what CNN is doing...from the United States once again...but we are dismantling the plan and they know that we're dismantling it," Maduro said during a Cabinet meeting ...

Google Maps Caracas, Jul 24 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his government is "keeping watch" for a possible tsunami in the Caribbean, after the Seismic Research Center of Trinidad and Tobago warned of strong seismic activity in the underwater volcano Kick'em Jenny "I am in contact with governors, military chiefs and emergency management offices keeping watch for a possible...

EFE file Madrid, Apr 23 (EFE).- Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said here Thursday that Spain has no intention of breaking off diplomatic relations with Venezuela, adding that he hopes for "democratic stability and economic prosperity" in the Latin American country. Garcia-Margallo made these remarks in his speech at the Leaders Forum, organized by EFE and KPMG, where he introd...

Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Apr 7 (EFE).- Some 13,000 doctors have emigrated from Venezuela in recent years, the president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, Douglas Leon Natera, said Tuesday, while warning that "the crisis" in the sector has a "tendency to gradually get worse."   "Around 13,000 doctors have gone" from the nation's 300 private and state hospitals, specifically "7,...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ Washington, Mar 19 (EFE).- The Obama administration's designation of the situation in Venezuela as a threat to U.S. national security may herald a military intervention, the Venezuelan foreign minister said Thursday at the Organization of American States headquarters in this capital. "History has shown that ...

EFE file New York, Mar 17 (EFE).- Venezuela on Tuesday took out a full-page ad in The New York Times to ask the U.S. government to immediately cease its "hostile actions" against Caracas and to retract the executive order declaring the South American nation to be a threat to its national security. Entitled "Venezuela is not a threat," the ad takes the form of a letter directed at the Americ...

Obama imposes sanctions, declares emergency over Venezuelan threat to U.S. EFE Washington, May 9 (EFE).- U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday ordered the sanctions recently approved against top Venezuelan officials to be implemented and declared a "national emergency" over the "extraordinary risk" that, he said, the Venezuelan situation poses for U.S. security. In an executive order, Obama...

EFE Madrid, Mar 6 (EFE).- Agencia Efe on Friday denied having sent out any reports on a supposed "self-coup" staged by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and has notified authorities in Venezuela of its surprise at some statements made by the president in this regard.   In an address delivered on Thursday, the Venezuelan president said: "And the stupid people at Agencia Efe, that's...

Supporters of President Maduro rally in Caracas EFE/AGENCIA VENEZOLANA DE NOTICIAS/ Caracas, Feb 28 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday ordered the United States, whose government he accuses of conspiring against him, to immediately reduce the staff of its Caracas embassy from approximately 100 to a level similar to the 20 that his government has in Washington.   ...

Source: Wikimedia Commons In a video statement broadcast by Noticias 24 in Venezuela, one of many state-owned media outlets in the troubled South American nation, President Nicolás Maduro affirmed that a group of terrorists have traveled to Costa Rica with the intention of threatening him. Such was the report published by online news daily CRHoy.com earlier today. President Maduro is one of...

By Daniel Wallis CARACAS | Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:53pm EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Gathered in the yard of a small home in the Venezuelan countryside, a young man with dreadlocks asks a bearded musician clutching a guitar: "Who can Chavez rely on?" "All of us! Let me tell you who we are," the older man replies, breaking into song over gritty images of wo...

By Deisy Buitrago CARACAS | Sat Dec 15, 2012 7:53pm EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has recovered "full intellectual capacity" after a six-hour cancer operation in Cuba this week, an official said on Saturday, but offered few details on the socialist firebrand's physical condition. Chavez's health weakened sharply after h...

By Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS | Wed Dec 12, 2012 9:34am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans waited anxiously on Wednesday for more details of President Hugo Chavez's condition in Cuba after cancer surgery deemed successful by the government but still shrouded in secrecy. Supporters held prayer vigils around the South American nation, while opponent...

By Andrew Cawthorne and Marianna Parraga CARACAS | Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:02am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on Tuesday for a recurrence of cancer that has thrown his future into jeopardy and upended politics in the South American OPEC nation. "My dear friend and colleague, Comandante Hugo Chavez,...

By Diego Ore and Efrain Otero CARACAS | Fri Dec 7, 2012 9:04am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez made a theatrical return home on Friday after medical treatment in Cuba, walking and joking in a first public appearance for three weeks that quashed rumors he may have been at ...

BRASILIA | Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:58am EST BRASILIA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez looks set to miss a regional trade summit in Brazil on Friday after going to Cuba for cancer-related medical treatment, officials said. Chavez had been enthusiastic about attending the Mercosur bloc's meeting in Brasilia to celebrate Venezuela's entry, so his abse...

CARACAS | Tue Nov 6, 2012 8:59am EST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, one of the U.S. government's leading critics, said there was little hope for change in American foreign policy regardless of the winner of Tuesday's vote for the White House. The recently re-elected Chavez wants Barack Obama to beat Republican challenger Mitt Romney...

Few political leaders have benefited more from Hugo Chavez’s largesse than Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Consequently, few foreign leaders will be watching the Venezuelan polls on Sunday closer than the Sandinista strongman. Ortega and his party’s politburo, recipients of more than $2.2 billion in Venezuelan petrodollars since 2007, insist they are confident their Venezuelan benefacto...

The Office of the Chancellor has confirmed that a member of our diplomatic corps has been kidnapped in the Republic of Venezuela. The victim in question is Guillermo Cholele, who is an attaché and counsel to Nazareth Avendano, Ambassador of Costa Rica in the Republic of Venezuela. According to an official communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Avendano explained that Mr....